IT’S A RENAISSANCE
Missing human touch during pandemic, Willimantic artist paints his own take on Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam
Andy Gutt looked at the old building he owns next to his Cafemantic restaurant on Main Street in Willimantic and saw a canvas.
He talked to his friend Ben Keller, a local artist, about it and wanted to know: What did he miss the most during the coronavirus pandemic?
“I said, ‘You know what I really miss right now? There’s so many people I’d like to give a hug to,’” Gutt said. “So many people whose hand I’d like to shake. And that’s just something I can’t do.’
“‘I would imagine a lot of people miss physical human touch right now.’ That’s all I had to say, and he rolled with it.”
Keller’s vision was that of the hands from Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel, straining to reach each other but not quite touching.
“That seemed to be the most iconic image to go with,” Keller said. “We wanted to give a glimmer of hope, kind of touching on the social distancing thing, but also bringing some light to the darkness.”
Keller, 28, of Willimantic, started May 2 and finished the project May 8, working with spray paint to cover the siding and windows of the building, which was built in the early 19th century as housing for mill workers. Gutt now uses it for storage space.
Posts started popping up on social media about the significance of the work.
“We see several appropriate messages here: ‘Let life prevail today, the genesis of Willimantic as a mill community and Willimantic Renaissance,’ ” read a Facebook post from the Mill Museum in Willimantic.
“We said, ‘OK. It’s about the idea of a renaissance, of a new period of thinking,’” Gutt said. “You have to go through the dark ages to arrive at the renaissance.
“A lot of folks keep saying, ‘What does it mean?’ Ben and I keep saying, ‘We don’t really know.’ It just kind of flowed out. People have been attaching their own meaning to it.”
As far as Keller is concerned, that’s what good art does.
“Everyone’s free to interpret it as they will,” he said. “I don’t want to limit peoples’ interpretations of my work.”
On a Facebook post about the work, he wrote: “This mural is for the present. While we need to keep distance from each other, we can’t help but naturally crave touch or
“Everyone’s free to interpret it as they will. I don’t want to limit peoples’ interpretations of my work.”
—Ben Keller
physical interaction. Humanity was not designed to be distanced. One encouraging message to keep in mind, referencing Michelangelo’s original work — God is never too far away for us to cling to. Perhaps this is our Genesis of a new era. The story is yet to be told.”
Keller, who grew up in Hebron and graduated from RHAM High School, started taking art lessons when he was 8 years old. He was a graffiti artist at first, but then realized he could create art that people might want to keep around instead of painting over it.
“I originated painting murals from the graffiti scene,” he said. “That’s how I picked up the spray can and got comfortable with that as a medium of choice.
“Instead of getting in trouble, I decided I’m going to turn my lifestyle around and do my work for profit.”
Keller has painted murals in West Hartford, New Haven and other cities and also paints signs for businesses. He’s done a lot of studio work since the pandemic began.
“This one for Andy was a passion project,” Keller said. “I had the supplies on hand. It had to be done.”
Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.